Our people

Our people

I have broad interests in plant functional biology, drawing together the traditional disciplines of plant physiology, proteomics and genomics. The core theme is plant stress biology, specifically how plants survive in physically adverse conditions such as flooding, drought, heat and salt stress. Our experiments are designed around commercially important (e.g. eucalypts, cereals, cotton, solanaceous species) and the many wild relatives of these plants that evolved in much harsher conditions such as the Australian savannah. Using this approach and are international collaborations, we have successfully targeted stress-tolerance genes and learned how they confer this tolerance and how they might be exploited for commercial purposes, particularly as a means of enhancing resilience in the world’s agricultural systems.

Our research activities focus on elucidating the evolution, phylogeny, biodiversity, ecology and biostratigraphy of the earliest (stem group) members of the three major supergroups of bilaterian animals (Ecdysozoa, Spiralia and Deuterostomia) that arose during the Cambrian Explosion. Our work focuses on studying exceptionally preserved macro- and microfossils from a variety of localities in Australasia. We are particularly interested in the phylogenetic, ecological and biostratigraphic significance of early Cambrian ‘Small Shelly Fossils’.

Our research uses evolutionary analysis, statistical models and phylodynamic methods in order to infer the dynamics of key viral infections affecting human and animal health. Our work largely concentrates on infectious disease dynamics, revealing important insights into new and emerging infections. The research has led to some major findings; for example: i) found that biological features of viruses could predict human-to-human transmissibility, ii) revealed that while many viruses seem to co-diverge with their host species over evolutionary timescales, overall ‘host jumping’ plays a much greater role in shaping virus evolution than previously thought, and iii) applied new phylodynamic approaches that combine genetic and epidemiological data to uncover important insights into the dynamics and spread of infectious disease within populations.

The unifying theme of research in our lab is the investigation of genetic diversity using DNA markers and sequence analysis. Over the past 10 years, we have worked on viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants, invertebrates, sharks, bony fish, birds and mammals. We have developed a range of molecular methods for rapidly assessing genetic and functional diversity in genomic DNA and DNA extracted directly from environmental samples (metagenomic DNA).

We are interested in addressing fundamental questions in evolution, genetics and behaviour. Broadly, our research deals with extravagant traits (like flashing iridescent signals) and behaviours (like courtship rituals) that evolve as a consequence of sexual reproduction. We study how such traits are inherited, how different environments affect their development, and how they integrate with other tasks and traits critical to the Darwinian fitness of males as well as females. A general theme of the lab is to exploit the novel and often exciting empirical opportunities presented by new, non-traditional study organisms. Although not limited to particular taxonomic groups, we have specialist expertise with insects and freshwater fishes, and major ongoing research programs using colourful tropical butterflies, spiders and guppies.

We use sedimentary records to provide a historical context to modern marine ecosystems. We seek to quantify how western colonisation and development have impacted Australian marine ecosystems. To achieve this goal, we are actively working to understand the preservation of biological remains in sedimentary records and the idiosyncrasies of palaeontological assemblages. More generally, we are interested in the interplay between ecological and evoluntionary processes at the broadest spatial and temporal scales.

Our group investigates the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions and dissemination of human-derived pathogens to wildlife within a one health framework; which recognises that the pathogen cycle involves the movement of potential disease-causing organisms between humans, domesticated animals and wildlife. We are studying the pathogen cycling in threatened systems, such as in Antarctica, and in endangered wildlife species.

Nutrition is critical to immune defence and resistance to pathogens, with consequences that affect the health, welfare and reproductive success of individual organisms, and poor nutrition has profound ecological an evolutionary implications. Despite the undoubted importance of nutrition to immune defence, the challenge remains to capture the complexity of this relationship. The prospect of our research is to study the network of relationships between food composition, immunity, gut microbiota and disease. Describing the network of interactions underlying nutritional immunology is essential to provide a more comprehensive and robust understanding of the key determinants of the outcome of host-pathogen interactions.

Our interest is in the antioxidant systems in the human red blood cell, and at present my studies centre around the antioxidant glutathione. We are particularly interested in investigating the way glutathione levels are controlled within red cells. To obtain a quantitative understanding of the interaction of these processes in maintaining appropriate glutathione levels, we have developed a mathematical model of glutathione metabolism. We use the model combined with experimental measurement to identify the underlying causes of glutathione deficiency in situations ranging from disease states to long-term storage of red blood cells before transfusion.